Abdullah, Munshi, 1796-1854

Abdullah bin Abdul al Kadir (1796–27 October 1854) (Arabic: عبد الله بن عبد القادر 'Abd Allāh bin 'Abd al-Qādir), also known as Munshi Abdullah, was a Malayan writer. He was a famous Malacca-born munshi of Singapore and died in Jeddah, then part of the Ottoman Empire. Munshi Abdullah followed his father's career path as a translator and teacher of colonial officials in the Malay Archipelago, mainly the British and the Dutch. Munshi Abdullah has been popularly regarded as among the most cultured Malays who ever wrote, one of the greatest innovators in Malay letters and the father of modern Malay literature. He is also a useful source for historians on precolonial Malaya, offering a rare local perspective.